Report: RedSox pitcher Jon Lester claimed on waivers

Associated Press file photoBoston Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester was claimed by an unidentified team on waivers, according to a report.

Another Red Sox star has been claimed on waivers, according to a report.

Fox Sports reports that pitcher Jon Lester has been claimed by an unidentified team. The Red Sox put Lester and several other players on waivers in August.

The club can either pull Lester back from the waiver, let him go to the team that claimed him without return compensation, or try to work out a trade.

It is highly improbable they would simply let him go for nothing, and not likely at this time they would trade him. When Lester was struggling in midseason, Red Sox management said they were not looking to trade him.

In the last month, he has turned his season around. Lester put together six consecutive good starts, and won three straight before losing to the Los Angeles Angels Thursday.

He is 8-11 with a 5.01 ERA.. Lester will receive $11.6 million next season with a $13 million option for 2014.

That is not considered huge money for a pitcher still considered worthy of a top spot in the rotation. The Red Sox have certainly eased their financial stress by trading Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Punto and Josh Beckett to the Dodgers last week.

That saved the club $260 million. However, it also said the waiver process, once considered a paper-pushing formality in baseball, was worth taking seriously.

Beckett, Gonzalez, Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury were placed on waivers. There might have been others, but those were the names that became public in a waiver process that is supposed to remain confidential - which is why the identity of teams that claim players is not always known.

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said almost all players go on waivers at some point, as teams explore interest in them. It has not been considered the automatic forerunner to transaction between teams, but the Red Sox-Dodgers trade showed that a deal is indeed possible once a player is claimed.

Lester and Ellsbury were placed on waivers before the Gonzalez-Beckett trade. Whether that deal affects Boston's strategy with Lester now has yet to be determined.